Obeying God rather than men: Protestant individualism and the empowerment of Victorian women

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dc.contributor.advisorMichie, Helenaen_US
dc.contributor.advisorArnold, Agnes Cullenen_US
dc.creatorChance, Janna Smartten_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-06-03T19:49:56Zen_US
dc.date.available2009-06-03T19:49:56Zen_US
dc.date.issued2008en_US
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation looks at Protestant individualism and the degree to which it was potentially empowering to Victorian women. By Protestant individualism, I mean a way of thinking about and speaking about the self that arises from and is closely associated with Protestant theology. As I argue, this newfound emphasis on Protestant individualism placed Victorian women in a promising position. Unlike philosophy and political theory, which have traditionally based a person's claim to be an individual on his or her reason---something that women have often been believed to lack, Protestantism has generally made a person's individual status the product of a far more universal condition: each person's ultimate accountability to God. People are all primarily individuals, Protestant individualism asserts, because each of them---whether male or female---must stand individually before God on Judgment Day. Since Western political thought has generally predicated a person's claim to rights on his status as an individual, Victorian women's improved claims to individual status gave them, in turn, improved cases for arguing for their personal and political rights. Included among these rights would have been their right to consent (to marriage, sex, etc.) and their right to follow their own consciences (in moral, religious, and political matters). The first two chapters of this dissertation focus on Protestant individualism as it appears in Evangelical Anglican and Broad Church Anglican religious writings, chapter one examining the individualistic and anti-individualistic currents within such theological texts and chapter two exploring the degree to which such works make Protestant available to women. Chapters three and four turn to Victorian women novelists Charlotte Bronte and Mary Augusta Ward and how their novels dramatize the promises and perils of female Protestant individualism. Bronte, who, as I argue, depicts a fairly religiously orthodox Protestant individualism, presents such orthodox Protestant individualism as generally available and empowering to women. In contrast, Ward, who portrays a much less orthodox Protestant individualism, presents such heterodox Protestant individualism as difficult, if not impossible, for women to realize.en_US
dc.format.extent213 p.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.callnoTHESIS ENGL. 2008 CHANCEen_US
dc.identifier.citationChance, Janna Smartt. "Obeying God rather than men: Protestant individualism and the empowerment of Victorian women." (2008) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/22217">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/22217</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/22217en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectReligionen_US
dc.subjectWomen's studiesen_US
dc.subjectEnglish literatureen_US
dc.titleObeying God rather than men: Protestant individualism and the empowerment of Victorian womenen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentEnglishen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineHumanitiesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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